The Altman Companies to build 321-unit rental development

By John Bell

A 321-unit rental apartment community shown in this rendering is being developed at Kendall Square in West Kendall.

Boca Raton-based The Altman Companies recently announced that it has closed on 24.6-acres in Kendall Square near Kendall Drive and SW 167th Avenue in West Kendall. Construction is scheduled to start immediately with first units to be delivered in the fourth quarter of 2013. Lenders for the Development are TD Bank and Behringer Harvard. Bradley Associates and BBX Capital are the equity partners.

The 321-unit rental apartment community will feature a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartment homes and 6,000 square feet of retail. Many of the apartment homes will offer lake views, and residents will have a membership in their own club with a private resort style 5,000-squarefoot clubhouse, which will offer exciting features to residents for recreation and business.

Other amenities will include a pool and spa, an outdoor activities pavilion with sports bar and demonstration kitchen, cabanas overlooking the lake, playground, beach volleyball court, dog park with bathing station, and a unique opportunity for residents to grow their own organic vegetables and herbs on 10- by 10-foot garden plots complete with a composter.

According to Joel Altman, chair of the Altman Companies, the community features an urban design based on traditional neighborhood master planning with emphasis on pedestrian traffic featuring wide sidewalks, front porches, parallel parking, and one-way streets.

The neighborhood design is anchored by a large 80-foot-wide, heavily landscaped promenade with flowering trees and plazas with water features, trellises and benches. The promenade ends at a two-acre park with a soccer field and a large obelisk surrounded by tall oak trees.

“It reminiscent of what you would find in some of the finer European cities,” Altman said.

“We are very pleased to be partnering with the Altman Companies on this development, as we continue to build our investment portfolio,” said Seth Wise, president of BBX Capital Asset Management. “The Altman Companies are highly respected in the rental apartment field and we are excited to partner with them to bring this exciting new neighborhood to the Kendall market.”

And we lose more farm/green land space. If the farms all disappear, and transportation costs continue to rise (and why wouldn't they) where is the food for our area going to come from? If something other than farming happens to this land, it should be towards building real parks, not open spaces with soccer and baseball fields.We need quality not quantity of life.